Boy Shot Twice In Head In Graffiti-scarred Tunnel

According to one theory, members of the Black Disciple Nation had been harboring Robert while police searched the area, but that as the pressure intensified, he was executed.

"At this point in the investigation, we don't want to speculate as to why this young man was slain," Pullman Area Detective Cmdr. Earl Nevels said at a press conference Thursday morning. "We are looking to a series of theories."

He added, however, that they have "very positive leads."

"We do have someone that we are taking a very close look at," Nevels said.

Late Thursday, police were questioning several people, but called them witnesses, not suspects.

In the Roseland neighborhood where Robert and Shavon both lived, children shunned Robert, knowing him to be trouble. He had already been arrested at least eight times and convicted at least twice. He had also been raised in a deeply troubled home, where supervision was found to be inadequate for someone with Robert's behavioral problems, according to state records.

"He's a little boy, but he tried to rule his friends," said one 12-year-old girl who was neighbor of Robert's. "He was a bad boy."

But no 11-year-old is evil.

Just last week, he was all smiles and happiness as he played outside Van Vlissingen Elementary School, which he attended until last year. In fact, he told a favorite school staff member that he had a frog at home that he wanted to give to her as a present, according to the school's principal, Jacqueline Carothers.

On Thursday, people came to the tunnel where Robert was found.

One man walked into the tunnel, lit by rows of yellow lights on each side. "Who put the gun in that baby's hand?" he said angrily as his wife sat in their car, weeping. "That was a baby."

He said he didn't even know the boy.

On Thursday afternoon, Robert's family members draped their fence and porch with blue ribbons and attached two helium balloons. One balloon read, "I love you." The other read, "You're so special." There was also a yellow, white and blue teddy bear.

A poster bore his nickname, "Yummy," which he was given because of his love of cookies.

Around the corner, yellow ribbons were tied around Shavon Dean's porch. Just a few steps away, a memorial of flowers and banners had been erected at the spot where she had died.

Neighborhood children stopped by the memorial throughout the day Thursday.

"Where's she at?" asked Yazman Marshall, 7, who stood at Dean's memorial with her sisters.